Preview
Third Annual Indie Music Video Festival
Saturday, December 11
Broken City
Like many people with cool job descriptions, Calgary filmmaker Carl Ayling fell into his current vocation accidentally. The interdisciplinary artist had no intention of becoming a video director. In fact, he had been quite content writing his own screenplays and short films.
It had been one film in particular that prompted him to make music videos. Ayling had written and directed an ambitious short film and wanted to include a music video in its storyline. He made a one-off rock video with the help of the now defunct Calgary band XL Birdsuit. The film soon became too big for its limited budget and Ayling was forced to scrap the whole project.
When reviewing the footage, he discovered that the only thing he actually liked about the film was the faux video. It occurred to Ayling that music videos would be the perfect medium to experiment with an innovative multiscreened concept he had been working on.
Ayling knew a lot of musicians from the years he’d spent hanging out in the local music scene – including roommate and Falconhawk frontwoman Kara Keith. He noticed that most of his friends had a hard time promoting themselves and Ayling offered his services free of charge.
"I’ve seen what (musicians) are up against and how it all comes down to marketing," Ayling says. "I know that they don’t have the money to do it. I don’t really want to make a living making rock videos, I just want to help get something started."
Ayling’s first video project was for the Falconhawk song "Olympia." The low-budget, high-concept video ended up in heavy rotation on MuchMusic and MTV Canada. It’s rare for an independent band to get so much airplay on a commercial television station and a lot of its success had to do with Ayling’s creative vision. The video was comprised of a unique multi-screening style, using 16 individual takes and then putting them together to form one seamless picture. The final product is an image that is both fractured and fluid at the same time.
"It’s a new technique that hasn’t been fully exploited," Ayling explains. "I see all these different avenues within the one (multi-frame) and all the relationships within the screens. The more time I spend with it, the more in-depth it gets."
Like many independent filmmakers, Ayling shot "Olympia" on digital video. The inexpensive medium gave him the freedom to play around and experiment with the images.
"(Post-production) took no time at all because everything is in-camera and there’s not a single hard edit in that video," he says. "The only thing I had to do in the end was put the 16 shots together to make one picture. When you spend all this time with film and all these different kinds of mediums, you see all these possibilities. Even if something doesn’t work, there is usually something there that you can explore."
Ayling is planning on doing more videos for local artists such as The Dudes and Chad Vangaalen. He has also partnered with local record label Saved By Radio and is working towards making a video for every band on their roster.
Music fans will get a chance to see Ayling’s work as part of the Third Annual Indie Music Video Festival. The Falconhawk video is one of many Canadian entries included in the international event and is a great way to see what’s new in filmmaking and music.
"If you don’t want to follow the formula, you’re up against a wall," Ayling says. "The way popular culture works – and this works from commercials to television to music – it doesn’t ask you to look beyond the surface. If you see beyond the surface, you’ll see that you’re being manipulated. But what art does, is it asks you to go beyond the surface, because it challenges you with the images or the contrast, and that’s all the difference."
The Third annual Indie Music Video Festival will feature 43 videos including works by Black Rice, Camera Obscura, D.O.A., The Frames, Jaga Jazzist, Luna,
The Notwist and Stinkmitt and will be followed with live music by Falconhawk. |
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